New Video-profiles on Contemporary Slovak Visual Artists Are Being Produced for the ARTBASE Database
Thanks to a grant from the Bratislava City Foundation, which this year KHB managed to acquire at the maximum level, 6 video-profiles of contemporary Slovak visual artists are being produced for the ARTBASE online database. The project is accomplished in co-production with the Artdispečing.sk portal.
Photo © KHB archive
The selection of artists in 2019 was decided by an international commission of experts which was appointed for the first three years of the ARTBASE project’s functioning. The commission is composed as follows: Małgorzata Ludwisiak (direction of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw), Kinga German (Institute for Theoretical Studies – Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest), Michal Novotný (director of FUTURA – Centre of Contemporary Art, Prague), Nina Vrbanová (director and principal curator, Kunsthalle Bratislava) and Katarína Trnovská (former manager of publication projects, Kunsthalle Bratislava).
"The project for video-profiles of artists, designed for the ARTBASE online database of contemporary art, is focused mainly on expansion of media opportunities for presentation. In recent years communication in the online space has become ever more important, and the Corona crisis has emphasised and accelerated this trend. Web content, however attractive it may be, today also demands an audiovisual form. A pivotal point in the profiles, namely an expert study by a prominent art historian, will give completeness to the individual videos. This textual side of the profile targets the more informed viewer, while the video-profiles are designed rather for a visitor to the webpage who is making acquaintance with current art. Our aim was to sustain an attractive format without any loss of professional quality. Partly for that reason, we chose the form of dialogues between the artists and the art historians," says Erik Vilím, manager of documentation at Kunsthalle Bratislava, and coordinator of the ARTBASE project.
Jaroslav Kyša and Erik Vilím, photo © KHB archive
This year’s goal is to create a series of representative video-profiles on the following artists: Oto Hudec, Ilona Németh, Dorota Sadovská, Jaroslav Kyša, Tomáš Rafa and Stano Masár. The following art historians will participate in the videos: Alexandra Tamasová, Mira Keratová, Jana Geržová, Erik Vilím and Mira Sikorová Putišová.
“Our criterion for the selection of experts was not just professional qualifications but also their knowledge of the artist’s works. So we called upon curators and art historians who had collaborated with the given artist in the past and were intimately familiar with his/her artistic programme and how it had evolved. Apart from an opportunity of presenting the work, we were interested in offering the artist support from an expert in producing the profile. Given the current situation of restricted international mobility, we were obliged to confine the representation of theoreticians to our Slovak experts,” Erik Vilím says.
The profiles of individuals will offer a deeper view of their artistic programmes, processes of production of works, and personal motivations. Thereby the planned series of videos will create a new source of information in a profile of the artist in online databases. Stano Masár (Artdispečing.sk) is responsible for the dramaturgy of the video-profiles, Marek Valovič and Pavol Čižmár (Shape production) for camera and editing, and Stroon for the musical component.
“ARTBASE is a key instrument, in my view, for contemporary visual art, for the presentation of our scene. The video-section of this database links up with an already created framework: introducing an artist’s works and creative concept with an accompanying statement by an art historian. The parameter set in this way doesn’t just present the art and the artist, at the same time it provides an expert’s reflections. An art historian is actively involved in preparing the profile, selecting the works, and conceiving the dramaturgy. The leitmotif of the video-documentary is to introduce the individual artist and his/her key works, the works which are important for understanding this artist’s programme,” says Stano Masár, author of the dramaturgy of the video-profiles.
We thank the Bratislava City Foundation for support and the artdispečing.sk portal for cooperation. With our combined forces, even in these complicated times we are sustaining a live visual culture.
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Concept and coordination of the project: Erik Vilím
Dramaturgy of the video-profiles: Stano Masár (Artdispečing.sk)
Camera and editing: Marek Valovič and Pavol Čižmár (Shape production)
Music: Stroon
Graphic design: Eva Šimovičová
Length: 10 – 15 minutes